About 20 million Americans have kidney insufficiency, a significant independent risk factor for cardio-vascular disease. The number of people diagnosed with kidney disease has doubled each decade for the last two decades impacting on human suffering and enormous Medicare costs imposed by end-stage renal disease. Urinary protein loss (proteinuria) is a common feature of kidney dysfunction of glomerular origin and is itself a risk factor for both renal and extra-renal diseases including cardiovascular disease. Diabetic kidney disease, for example, the most common and fastest growing form of ESRF in the U.S., is first manifest by the leakage of a small amount of protein in the urine and altered podocyte behavior. Kidney podocytes are highly differentiated cells and form the outer part of the ultrafiltration barrier. Their foot processes (FP) are interconnected by the slit diaphragm (SD). Proteinuric kidney diseases are typically associated with podocyte membrane remodeling (FP effacement and SD disruption).